


Ebb and Flow

by mako_lies (wingeddserpent)



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Post-Season/Series 09
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-24
Updated: 2014-06-24
Packaged: 2018-02-05 13:01:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 676
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1819393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wingeddserpent/pseuds/mako_lies
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Anna, Hannah, and Free Will visit the beach.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ebb and Flow

**Author's Note:**

> For the prompt: Anna + Hannah, waves.
> 
> Disregards parts of 5.13. Warning for: power differentials between angels and vessels.

It isn’t Heaven. The white-frothed waves crash against the cool sand. Sunrise has the sand glittering and the creatures waking. This vessel itches against her Grace, but no longer attempting to burst at the seams as it had when she had first fallen. 

Hannah fills the human lungs with briny air and stretches her newly-returned wings—the invisible winds stirring equally invisible feathers. 

Beside her, Anna’s voice is low, soft like a wave-smoothed piece of green glass. “I thought you would stay in Heaven, now that you’ve thrown Metatron off his throne.” Everyone in Heaven knew Anael’s story, that she fell and later died for forsaking Michael. Somehow, Hannah doubts Anna has any love left for authority. 

What it must be like, to have a body crafted for you instead of sliding into an already occupied skin. The hair of Hannah’s vessel stirs with the fierce wind and, somewhere, a gull shrieks. “Erin was kind enough to permit me within once more.” Hannah tilts her head as the morning light hits the water, making it appear blue-grey in color. “Heaven isn’t any more orderly than Earth.”

Anna laughs, grating and throaty, always seeming so comfortable in her skin. “Free will has a tendency to make a mess.”

Strong words from an angel that played dead through the Civil War, Naomi’s Reign, and the Fall. Hannah nods at the truth of Anna’s words, regardless. “Will you be returning, now that the Gates are opened?” Hannah asks, blue eyes fixed on the rising sun. 

“No,” says Anna, “Heaven is no longer my home, and I value my freedom.”

“Then why show yourself to me?” asks Hannah, turning to examine her sister, and Anna’s bright hair tumbles over her shoulders with her shrug. 

“You weren’t in my garrison, but I’ve got to say, I wished you were. Even before I ripped out my Grace.” Anna toes at a clump of dried seaweed. “Maybe it was selfish, but when you looked like you needed some extra guidance, I thought I’d offer what I could. A few months later, and here we still are.” Anna’s twin sets of wings stretch golden in the sun, glimmering against the beauty of her body. 

Hannah returns her gaze to the rolling ocean, the heartbeat of her vessel speeding up as though she has exerted Erin’s body physically. Such strange creatures, humans. Beautiful, fleeting ones, but strange. And stranger still to walk among them as she has. Within the last five years, more has changed in Heaven than any other point since Lucifer fell. 

She fills and empties her borrowed lungs as the beach comes to life with light and the call of birds. “And should I choose not to keep your secret?”

“Then that’s your choice.”

A nearby crab scuttles beneath a rock. Even a crab has choices to make, it seems. It could choose any rock on this beach, and yet it chooses the reddish one not far from Hannah. Anna’s hand settles warm on Hannah’s shoulder, her Grace shining bright against Hannah’s own, despite everything Anna has done. Despite what _Hannah_ has done. “I am needed in Heaven,” says Hannah, her vessel’s lips forming words she cannot feel.

No more dead angels. As Castiel had a choice with Metatron, Hannah now has one with Anael. Freedom is something Anna desires. A cage would kill her. “So you’re going back?” Anna asks, her frail human hand tightening on Hannah’s shoulder. 

Humanity has made her so very tactile.

“Yes. I… Yes.” Hannah straightens, flares out her wings. “Will you protect my vessel in my absence? Please?”

“Since you asked so nicely. But you’ll have to make it up to me, later,” and there is laughter in Anna’s voice. 

Hannah nods. “Thank you.” She turns back to her sister, and then places her hand on Anna’s cheek—and then, still warmed by Anna’s Grace—Hannah flies back to Heaven. 

 

Below, the waves crash against the beach, and Anna gently catches Erin before she falls into the sand, like a puppet whose strings have been severed.


End file.
